London Archive

London, Nov 3- Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen has passed the first part of her helicopter flying exams just months after starting a series of lessons and her tutor insists she is a natural in flight.

‘Gisele hasn’t finished her license yet, but she did pass her written exam. Now, there is one more step along the way, the practical exam, which is coming up in another week,’ starpulse.com quoted Shoreline aviation president Keith Douglass as saying.

‘She has been doing an excellent job. She is very dedicated. She flies at least three days a week. Flying a helicopter isn’t easy – it is a handful, because you can’t stop flying and just cruise but she is doing great,’ he added.

At the same time Douglass admits that Bundchen’s huge baby bump is making her time in the cockpit tricky, as the 29-year-old supermodel is due to give birth to her first child with her American football player husband Tom Brady next month.

‘We have pilots that fly right up to the end of pregnancy. She doesn’t go very high, maybe 500 feet or 1,000 feet, which is nothing. She is always close and can get down quickly if she needs to. She is feeling great and looking great,’ said Douglass.

‘She has been doing an excellent job. But she is almost to a point where she is too big to be flying,’ he added.

London, Nov 3 – Singer Rihanna has finally spoken out about the night her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown attacked her.

‘This happened to me. It can happen to anyone,’ contactmusic quoted Rihanna as saying.

The ‘Umbrella’ singer who was left battered and bruised after Chris assaulted her in February at a pre-Grammy party admitted it was hard to come to terms with it because of the feelings she had for the rapper.

‘He was definitely my first big love. So it was very difficult for me,’ said Rihanna.

London, Nov 3 – British actress-model Elizabeth Hurley has turned her back on London living for the sake of her young son Damian.

The ‘Austin Powers’ star has lived in the British capital for years and bought a sprawling estate in Gloucestershire, England in 2003 so that she, husband Arun Nayar and her seven-year-old son could spend weekends and holidays in the countryside but now Hurley has made a permanent move to the property because Damian thrived away from city life, reports imdb.com.

‘I bought a farm about six years ago. We used to do London in the week, with my son at school there, and go every weekend but we got very stressed by it and in the end we just thought, ‘It’s so beautiful and Damian’s so much happier down here’. He loves the fresh air and running around outside, because he was so cooped up in London, so we made the big decision last Easter and moved down there full time,’ she said.

The 44-year-old initially struggled with the move but she’s convinced it was worth it.

‘It’s a big chance for a city girl, but I love it. It’s where my son’s supposed to be. It’s a little harder for me and my husband but it’s worth it,’ she said.

London, Oct 29 – President Pratibha Patil told a gathering of top British figures from the world of business and finance Wednesday that economic reforms unleashed in 1991 have been accepted by all political parties in India.

‘Our economic policies have acceptance across our political spectrum. India is, undoubtedly, among the most attractive destinations globally for doing business,’ Patil said at a banquet in Guildhall, the 800-year-old home of the City of London Corporation.

Comprehensive economic reforms undertaken in 1991 were aimed at ‘accelerating the pace and quantum of investments in India.’ Patil told guests at the banquet hosted in her honour by the Lord Mayor of the City of London -the financial centre of the British capital.

The President said India’s steadily increasing urbanization and rapid growth of the electronic media have brought about ‘sweeping changes in the lifestyles and consumption attitudes of our people.’

‘The availability of cheap consumer finance has served to increase disposable incomes,’ which in turn had fuelled demand for goods and services – ‘ranging from home appliances and electronic goods to restaurants, travel, communication and entertainment.’

‘Today in India we have a very substantial middle class with growing purchasing power. All this should be of interest to businessmen all over the world,’ she added.

Her remarks came after the Lord Mayor, Ian Luder, who visited India with a business team last week, said some of the Indian financial practitioners and officials the delegation met ‘were cautious about reform.’

‘But in a global world, and even with your huge domestic market, you no longer have the option of keeping your head down: India is now truly part of the global economy.’

‘Fortunately, your government recognises that the hidden costs of India failing to initiate incremental reforms would be huge, condemning large parts of the population to remain where they are,’ Luder said.

He said it was ‘crucial’ for India to lift restrictions on the movement of capital, improve corporate governance and build financial inclusion.

India is the second largest investor in Britain after the US in terms of the number of jobs created by Indian companies.

More than 600 Indian companies have investments in Britain – two-thirds of them in the ICT and software sector – and some 74 Indian companies are listed on the London Stock Exchange, compared to 12 in New York.

London, Oct 28 – Atul Patel, the Indian-origin head of a leading British housing association, has laughed off a joke about his surname cracked by the gaffe-prone husband of the British monarch.

The chief executive of LHA-ASRA said he took ‘no offence’ at Prince Philip’s comments, which, according to The Sun newspaper, were made at a reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace Oct 13.

Patel was among 400 Indian-origin achievers lined up to be greeted by the royal couple at the reception held in advance of President Pratibha Patil’s Oct 27-29 visit to Britain.

According to The Sun, when the prince reached Patel, he looked at his name badge and said: ‘There’s a lot of your family in tonight.’

The 670,000 Patels living in Britain make it the country’s 24th most common name.

However, ‘Inside Housing’ magazine Tuesday quote Patel as saying: ‘I took no offence whatsoever to the comment made by Prince Philip.

‘I do not consider it a gaffe and took it in the light-hearted spirit in which it was intended.’

Britain and India had developed a closer relationship over the last 20 years, he said, adding: ‘Much of this is very clearly down to the tireless work undertaken by the Queen and Prince Philip across all the countries of the Commonwealth.’

‘As a British Indian who has lived in this country for 43 years, I am proud to call it my home,’ he said.

London, Oct 27 – Britain’s Prince Philip joked with British-Indian business leader Atul Patel about his name during a reception at Buckingham Palace, a media report said.

As guests lined up to meet the Queen and her husband Prince Philip, the 88-year-old royal turned to greet business chief Atul Patel.

After glancing at Patel’s name badge, the Sun quoted him as saying: ‘There’s a lot of your family in tonight.’

The comment appeared to jokingly suggest that all Patels are related.

Atul Patel, 47, is chief executive of the LHA-Asra group, one of Britain’s leading housing associations.

The surname, which originates from the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, is the second most popular after Singh. It is also Britain’s 24th most common, with an estimated 670,000 Patels living here, the Sun report said.

Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic, a campaign group committed to abolishing the monarchy, criticised Prince Philip’s remark.

‘Making a joke about people called Patel is deeply embarrassing given the timing of the Indian state visit.

‘At best it’s a comment that shows he’s out of touch and out of date. There are a large number of Patels living in Britain and many will find it offensive that Prince Philip tries to joke that they’re all related,’ Smith was quoted as saying.

A spokesperson for Patel Monday night confirmed the exchange – but insisted he took it as a joke.

‘Absolutely no offence was taken at all by Atul. It was taken in a very light-hearted way,’ the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Indian President Pratibha Patil arrived in London Monday night for the official state visit to Britain.

Royal author Phil Dampier, who co-wrote ‘Duke of Hazard, The Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip’, Monday night said: ‘This is a vintage Prince Philip gaffe, but I’m sure he didn’t mean any offence.

‘He’s been putting his foot in it like this for years,’ Dampier was quoted as saying.

London, Oct 27 – After complaining about the music industry, British singer Lily Allen is setting up her own record label.

Despite two hit albums and several singles that topped UK top 10, Allen has been hinting at her dissatisfaction with the industry, reported mirror.co.uk.

‘I’m setting up a record label at the moment, getting involved in lots of different things. I think things need to change in the music industry and we need to rethink a lot of stuff,’ she said.

London, Oct 27 – British pop star Lady GaGa will pay a tattoo tribute to her father who recently had a successful open heart surgery.

Contactmusic.com reports that the ‘Paparazzi’ hitmaker took the last two weeks off to look after her father Joseph as he had a valve replaced in his heart and she’s relieved that the operation went off well.

‘I’m gonna get a tattoo for him this week. I’m gonna get a heart that says ‘Dad’ in it,’ she said.

The new skin art will be the singer’s ninth tattoo.